Waste Not, Want Not

A new study has been in the news this week noting that approximately 40% of all food in the United States gets thrown away.  I wanted to be shocked and appalled by this, but I'm not (well, I'm appalled, at least).  I see the way people throw away perfectly good food at restaurants instead of taking it home in a to-go "doggie" bag.  I see how, when cooking, friends don't use a rubber spatula to scrape the dregs of minced vegetables, cake batter or tomato sauce out of a dish or can.  It's so easy to waste here in the U.S., where we have so much (some would argue, too much) that throwing away perfectly good food doesn't even cross many people's minds as wrong.    In full disclosure, I'm no angel.  I've been known to get lazy with my cooking some weeks and let a whole broccoli head turn yellow, find that beautiful red and orange peppers have mushed into a soppy goo, or discover my lovely purple eggplant has a moldy friend growing all over it.  But, a) I feel really, really bad about it, and b) I have a compost outside, so at the very least, I try to recycle the rotting food into something productive and beneficial for future growth.

This week, in light of the news of our chronic food waste, I decided I wanted to post photos of the interesting dinners Bryony and I have been enjoying, courtesy of the splendid selection of produce we find at our local farmer's market each week. 

Today's dish was a yummy tried-and-true salsa-meets-relish that I knew Bryony would really enjoy.  I made my own corn chips, which complemented the black bean, corn, fresh tomato & cilantro "dip" very nicely.

Bon appetit!